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Maguire's bitteroot
Lewisia maguirei
NatureServe conservation status
Global (G-rank): G2
State (S-rank): S1
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Species range
This species is known from 12-13 sites across a range of several thousand square kilometers. When first identified, L. maguirei was known only from a single mountain range in eastern Nye County, Nevada. Additional populations have been identified since 2020 in three other Nevada counties, as well as Millard County in Utah, representing a significantly wider range than previously understood. The recent observations in Utah are situated in close proximity to each other, in the hilly desert west of the Wah Wah mountain range.
Threats or limiting factors
It has been speculated that L. maguirei is threatened by collectors removing plants from the wild, however difficult cultivation likely discourages collection, and the plant is not known to be traded internationally. Other anthropogenic threats include livestock trampling and mineral extraction, but the relatively high and steep habitats the plant is found in may protect it from such threats. Perhaps the most pressing threats to this species are related to climate change and droughts. While the impacts of these threats are largely unknown on Utah populations, conceptual models for climate change impacts on rare plants in the Great Basin would suggest that montane species with restrictive habitats (such as the carbonate soils L. maguirei depends on) will likely experience a shrinking in suitable habitat size as climate change progresses. As a further result of this process, populations may become more isolated and thus more susceptible to extirpation. Further inventory and monitoring will be critical conservation actions to further understand the range of this rare species and its response to continued climate change in the future.
